


Those Who Wander May Be Lost

by choppedmint (forevermint)



Series: The Road Not Taken [9]
Category: The Morganville Vampires - Rachel Caine
Genre: F/M, Family, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21642328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forevermint/pseuds/choppedmint
Summary: ORIGIN "Heartbroken: Those Who Wander May Be Lost": All stories end. But when it’s an immortal vampire telling the story they just go on - and on. You just have to pick the battles, or stories, you want to tell. I never really considered to far who Gwendolyn was to Aaron. You’re welcome to make up your own mind. But the Goldmans have always been unable to change anyone. The humans they meet they will lose. Even the setting of their own family isn’t always a sure thing. I tried to express that, just a little, in the distance between Aaron and his cousins, Jakob and Patience Jr. Even now, they’re growing apart. But the story really was just a transition from the Goldmans’ era in France to their journey back to the area around Germany and Poland.
Relationships: Theo Goldman/Patience Goldman
Series: The Road Not Taken [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558276





	Those Who Wander May Be Lost

When your life stretches ahead of you for an undefined amount of time, it is very easy to lose someone. It was just a fact. Aaron had lost Gwendolyn. Theo and the adults had lost the friends they had come to call family. Sooner or later, things happened. Sickness, drought, flood. Some disaster which hurt the humans but left the vampires physically unscathed.

They’d moved. The old town had lasted longer than any they had yet lived in. They hadn’t been removed from it by vampires or chased out by humans. What had caused them to move was the sickness which had plagued it.

Theo had made them stay until there was nothing more he could do. Those who recovered were weak. But there were few recoveries.

They traveled away from the outer areas of the country, deeper in and toward larger towns. Aaron wasn’t even sure where they were. Bishop had never found it interesting enough to teach where one country bordered another. He had learned a bit where they had lived before, but he couldn’t be sure how much distance they had traveled away from their old town.  
Aurelia ran up next to him, squeezing his hand out of comfort. Aaron wasn’t sure if it was for her or for him that she was doing it. But he appreciated it anyway.

They were traveling on foot for now. It was actually quicker than any human form of transport. So long as they didn’t draw attention to themselves, they could blur.

“Are you okay?” Aurelia asked in a soft voice. 

How long had it been since they’d left? A month? Maybe a bit more. Aaron shrugged, not feeling like talking.

“Mom’s worried about you?” whispered Aurelia.

Aaron looked over in the direction of Minnie. She looked away just as he did, but he caught the concern in her gaze.  
“I’m fine,” he muttered back in the direction of Aurelia.

She didn’t believe him, but seemed to leave it. “Did you want to go hunt for squirrels?” she muttered. Aaron’s stomach bulked. The Goldmans had found out relatively soon after leaving Bishop that, while they could subsist on animals, it was just that. A sub-existence. It made them week after a while, and started to only take the edge off hunger instead of remove it completely.  
It had been a complete surprise when Gwendolyn and her family helped. But that's another story Aaron didn’t want to dwell on. Instead he shook his head as he looked at his younger sister. “No, I’m good. I’m not hungry.” He was, a little, but he’d be okay.  
They rested for the day, deeper in the woods. Aurelia had mostly given up trying to cheer Aaron up.

He gazed at the fading stars, thinking about all that had happened. He’d been happy for a good handful of years. But now they were on the move again. Losing a home they’d worked so hard to make.

He moved away, back into the shadows and away from the sun which would soon replace the lights in the sky.

+++

Aurelia managed to cheer him up a bit the next day. She had succeeded in finding something for entertainment. He didn’t find a lot of fun in pulling apart pine cones, but it passed the time and Aurelia seemed to enjoy it. And it stopped his mother from eyeing him for a little. Did she think he was taking this any harder than Uncle Virgil or his father? Or Marcel and Jochen? They had gotten along with Gwendolyn’s parents, even as they’d grown older than Theo and Patience. But Aaron didn’t want to think about that. He worked on picking some sap out from between his fingers.

“How long do you think it’s going to be before we get where we’re going to stay?” asked Aurelia. Aaron shrugged. He looked around to ask Jakob, since he talked to the adults a lot more than he did. Patience Jr. was closer, but Aaron didn’t get along with her. Aurelia at least was on better speaking terms. Being stuck with someone for over a hundred years gave you a sense of who you really cared to spend time with.

“Jakob,” Aaron asked . “Do you know where we’re going? Or how long we’ll be walking?” And they were walking right now. Jakob was hanging back a little, but his attention fell to Aaron after a little. He frowned, looking in the direction of _his_ father. “I’m not sure,” he said in a low voice. “We might be heading to where it’s colder for a while. Though there probably won’t be as many people.”

Colder? Aaron moved back to Aurelia, thinking that over as soon as he told her. He was used to snow in Winter and it _had_ been pretty cold back when he could feel such things. But he wasn’t confident that Jakob’s answer was a good one.  
He continued walking.

It was another three weeks, by Aaron’s estimate, before they finally settled in a town. They’d passed a couple since then. They’d had too. But they moved on just as quickly.

This one, however, seemed to interest his aunt and it seemed to interest Theo as well. For now, Aaron settled into the routine of town life. He didn’t think it was permanent. But that didn’t stop him hoping. He just didn’t want to tell anyone that was what he was doing.

So, instead, he stuck near the other three younger vampires. At least it gave him a chance to ignore the other children outside.  
After four days, Theo moved them into a house.

And things started again.

**Author's Note:**

> ORIGIN "Heartbroken: Those Who Wander May Be Lost": All stories end. But when it’s an immortal vampire telling the story they just go on - and on. You just have to pick the battles, or stories, you want to tell. I never really considered to far who Gwendolyn was to Aaron. You’re welcome to make up your own mind. But the Goldmans have always been unable to change anyone. The humans they meet they will lose. Even the setting of their own family isn’t always a sure thing. I tried to express that, just a little, in the distance between Aaron and his cousins, Jakob and Patience Jr. Even now, they’re growing apart. But the story really was just a transition from the Goldmans’ era in France to their journey back to the area around Germany and Poland.


End file.
